Treasuring Montgomery's new lynching memorial and museum

This photo shows part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in racist lynchings, Sunday, April 22, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The national memorial aims to teach about America's past in hope of promoting understanding and healing. It's scheduled to open on Thursday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)(Photo: Brynn Anderson, AP)

“Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black body swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”

The words are ominous, but notably less ominous than the dastardly acts which inspired them. When Abel Meeropol, whose pen name was Lewis Allan, published his poem in 1936, followed by Billie Holiday’s haunting rendering in 1939, African-American men, women and children were being lynched routinely. Lynchings were popular and public events, attracting thousands of celebratory, grinning onlookers. White children even “played” lynching in a game called “Salisbury.”

In 1919, news of John Hartfield’s impending lynching in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was on the front page of the “New Orleans States.” Two components of the article symbolized the acceptance of terrorism against African-Americans. First, when asked how he intended to prevent the lynching, Mississippi’s governor, a Klansman, declared that he was “powerless to prevent it.” Second, whites disagreed over Hartfield’s appropriate treatment for the alleged violation of a white girl: Some wanted to lynch him while others said he should be burned.

According to “Lynching in America,” a report published by the Equal Justice Initiative, between 1877 and 1950, John Hartfield’s shameful fate occurred thousands of times in America — “the land of the free” and “the home of the brave.” It occurred at least 4075 times. It should therefore surprise no one that, for the past decade, EJI has painstakingly documented one of America’s most virulent forms of racial terrorism. And it should surprise no one that EJI’s efforts have culminated in the opening of two sites in Montgomery: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated in major part to the legacy of people terrorized by lynching, and The Legacy Museum, designed to “draw dynamic connections across generations of Americans impacted by the tragic history of racial inequality.”

The most salient characteristics of both sites are their necessity and their sobriety.

The ever-elusive goal of racial reconciliation in our nation can never be achieved without officially-sanctioned, public acknowledgment of our past, its devastating refutation of America’s founding principles, and the immunity afforded those whose disregard of those principles has been celebrated and often rewarded. One need look no further than the Alabama Constitution, which still requires, albeit futilely, racial segregation in public education. Even today, the state Constitution is facilitated by plethoric homage to men and women who were willing to die to perpetuate the enslavement of others. The whitewashing (pun intended) of the nation’s history includes yet another craven theory that furthers the goal of establishing white supremacy, namely, that the collective plight of today’s African-Americans is devoid of any historical influence, that instead it is seeded by contemporary flaws in community and character.

Yes, as the Walton, Rockefeller, and Koch descendants will affirm, whatever your grandfather did or whatever America permitted him to achieve is amply reflected in your current status. It doesn’t mean that your status is unjustified. However, it does mean that the converse is also true: Those whose ancestors’ rights were systematically trampled will also reflect a concomitant generational vestige.

The National Memorial and The Legacy Museum opened Thursday. Let us embrace and ponder seriously their necessity and their sobriety. Montgomery will doubtlessly overflow with natives and visitors eager to experience the blend of history and design so engagingly on display. To be sure, these new and important sites will augment tourism, fill hotels and restaurants, and help to make Montgomery a destination city.

However, let us cherish their higher purpose — to establish physical spaces and illuminating environments that trigger thoughtful and consequential consideration of how the past informs the present and presages the future. The nation owes much gratitude to EJI and its Director, Bryan Stevenson, for the vision and the plan that led to the creation of these monuments of historical accuracy and precipitants of racial healing.

In a civilized society, it is critical to remember.

“Without memory, our existence would be barren and opaque, like a prison cell into which no light penetrates ... [If] anything can, it is memory that will save humanity.”

—Elie Wiesel

Vanzetta Penn McPherson is a retired U.S. magistrate judge for the Middle District of Alabama. Send email to mcphersonscribe@knology.net.